Woman claims she was abused at Pleasant Hill Adventish Academy in mid 1990s

[Adsos Letter]

Source: Contra Costa Times

The woman, who is listed as Jane Doe in an amended complaint filed Thursday, said she was a 13-year-old seventh grader at the school, formerly known as the Pleasant Hill Junior Academy, in 1994 when the abuse by her teacher and volleyball coach, Andrew McPherson, began

According to a complaint filed in Contra Costa Superior Court, McPherson first started harassing the girl with sexually explicit comments that escalated into unwanted groping, fondling and kissing. The abuse culminated with an incident in May 1996, at the end of the girl's ninth-grade year, when McPherson choked the then-15-year-old on campus, the complaint says.

The church responded to the choking incident by transferring McPherson to its Reno Junior Academy, said the woman's attorneys, Kelly Clark, of Portland, Ore., and Lisa Sapoce, of Oakland. Two years later, McPherson was convictedof having sex with a 15-year-old female student at the Reno Junior Academy and groping another, according to an 1998 report in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

The attorneys said their client, as well as the Reno victims, would have been spared harm had the Seventh-day Adventists acted on complaints it received as early as 1993 that McPherson was physically, sexually and verbally inappropriate with students in Pleasant Hill. They expect other victims to come forward.

EDIT: the article's title should read "Adventist;" the mistake is in the original.






Read more: http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_13467672?nclick_check=1

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This business of schools transferring individuals, rather than prosecuting this kind of behavior, has got to stop. I say this as the father of two girls who attended SDA schools from K-12 (NOT Pleasant Hill or Reno Academies). I have a very close relationship with my girls, my wife and I always encouraged them to tell us about how they were treated by their teachers, and we were very active in our kids education. As far as I know nothing like this ever happened to them; in fact, the education and social awareness/attitude toward others they developed there were excellent. Still, no school should be transferring these kind of teachers rather than prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law. This type of attitude toward criminal teachers is undefensible. School should be a place where our kids, at the many vulnerable stages of their lives, find the safest of environments, and especially from those in authority.

[TPaine7]

1. Sheltering child abusers in the name of God only makes it worse.

Religious folks think--accurately I am sure--that their church will be subject to bad publicity if they expose these predators in their midst. There is also some theological concern; Jesus said that if you see a fault in a brother to deal with it privately:

If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector. Matthew 18: 15-17, NIV

One important point may be that this is the policy for a brother who sins against YOU, not an innocent child. And certain sins may merit skipping the polite details. Jesus also said something else--in the same chapter, no less:

But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Matthew 18: 6

Child abuse causes victims to enter prostitution, drug abuse, alcoholism, and other destructive--sinful--behavior. Where are the millstones?

[xchrom]

2. when the church -- the institution -- becomes more important that christ

then these cover ups for abuse happens.

if christ is what remains important - then dealing with these crimes with justice becomes the most important thing.

all institutions are prey to this kind of degradation -- not just churches. -- and all institutions need to undergo renewal and rehabilitation from time to time.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. Such rape and abuse is about power...protecting the abusers is also about power...

The church perceives that it will loose some of its power if it steps on these people. The Adventist are no different than the Catholic Chruch, or any other church, that allows abusive members to maintain their power over children. This is an uggly side to religion.

[TexasProgresive]

4. You know that this is not a church thang.

This kind of thing is prevalent in public schools as well. The standard operating system is exactly the same; give the perp an ultimatum that they can't refuse, leave quietly with a nice letter of recommendation and we will say no more. They other efforts to quiet the victim. They don't want the publicity and it seems that they don't care that they are spreading the abuse.

[mackerel]

5. Wow straight of the RoI abuse manual.

[Ernesto]

6. I'm confired LEFTY that married into the SDA cult

These f**kers are bat-shit crazy, trust me!
I have a great wife for many reasons but this clan is totally bonkers.